First-Year MMS Tech Titans Qualify for State

Mason
Middle School seventh grader Nikil
Prabhakar and eighth graders Veena
Ganti, Sai Kundety, Sathya Pancu, and Sanjay
Swamy formed first-year robotics team Tech Titans and qualified for the
Ohio State Championship on February 17, at iSPACE Scarlet Oaks campus in
Sharonville.

The Tech Titans placed first at the January 19-20 state qualifying tournament
at Van Wert High School, and finished seventeenth at State.

“This was a huge achievement since we are a rookie team, and most experienced
teams don’t even come in the top five!” shared Kundety. “We were able to defeat
teams who have been involved for years, which shows that we put the right
amount of work and effort into this project to be rewarded.”

The Tech Titans meet three to five days a week, and always have some sort of
responsibility the other days to finish or fix programming.

“The goal is for everyone to do something, or else it is not teamwork. We want
it done well to have the best chances of winning at states,” added Kundety.
“Thanks to our wonderful mentors, we learned what a basic program looks like
and how to build it.”

Guided by adult coaches and ​mentors, students develop STEM skills and
practice engineering principles (like keeping an engineering notebook), while
realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and sharing ideas.